China's Electric Chrysler Sebring: BAIC BE071

Some live pictures of BAIC's Sebring-based electric car have been found, and the results are thankfully not scary to look at.

China's BAIC (Beijing Automotive Industry Holdings Co.) opened its own dedicated alternate propulsion division a while back in the form of the Beijing New Energy Automotive Company. Now that's a name that rolls off the tongue.

B-NEAC's goal is to build a few hundred test vehicles as taxis that would be rechargeable throughout Beijing. If the taxis are successful, stage two would consist of building a bunch more and lease them directly to the public.

Called the BE701, it's a Chinese-built re-faced Sebring resulting from a partnership with Chrysler. The surprising part is that a Chinese company (usually notorious for a lack of originality) made a better-looking Sebring than Chrysler, the company that actually builds the Sebring.

The electric Chinese Sebring 2.0 supposedly has a range of 200 km (124 miles), a top speed of 199km/h or 124 mph, and can hit 60mph in under 15. Motivation is sourced from an electric motor connected to a 4-speed automatic transmission.

This could have potential, as long as the necessary recharging stations are in place. In regards to the styling: if Chrysler made its Sebring this attractive (comparably), maybe it wouldn't have had to kill the nameplate.